Male birth control has to be safer and have fewer side effects than letting women carry the burden of birth control.

I mean, I don’t think this is such a high bar to pass.

Pregnancy is bad but I’d argue the consequences of 18 years of unwilling parenthood far outstrips the consequences of 9 months of pregnancy. The consequences for those 18 years impact both parties.

Furthermore, men have almost zero agency of what happens in the case of an unintended pregnancy. A man can’t say, “this would ruin my life, I am going to choose not to have the baby.”

That makes the risk quite high for a man, IMO, and the only way to take agency over that risk is male birth control.